Quantum Clone Leap Episode 7: Fall of the Wall Part 1
by Psychoflop
Summary: Sam leaps to Germany, as the wall falls down.


p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"emTheorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists from the Dyad Institute into the desert to develop a top secret project known as QUANTUM LEAP. Pressured by neolutionists to prove his theories or lose funding, Doctor Beckett prematurely stepped into the Project Accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was 1 of the clones from another Dyad project known as Project Leda. Fortunately, contact with his own time was made through brainwave transmissions with Al, Sam's monitor and project observer, who appeared in the form of a hologram that only Doctor Beckett can see and hear. Trapped in the past, Doctor Beckett finds himself leaping from clone to clone, putting things right that the Proletheans made wrong and hoping each time that his next leap...will be the leap home./em/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"uAct 1/u/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sam remembered that he was sitting on a dirt and clay floor just a moment ago, but leapt into a relatively comfortable bed. One says relatively comfortable because the first thing that Sam noticed was tubing stuck into his left arm via a syringe./p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"emI'm in a hospital bed, did I leap in too late?/em/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"There was no mirror or otherwise reflective surface for Sam to see the reflection of who he leapt into, but by the all-white paint and machines to the left and right of his bed, Sam took solace in knowing that at least he wasn't in a cage again. Sam himself was too disoriented to tell what machines they were so that he could figure out why this clone was here, but he was focused enough to hear shouting coming from a short distance away from a window to his right./p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"emGerman, So I'm probably either in Germany, Austria, Switzerland or Liechtenstein./em/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"He switched back to looking at himself, knowing that Al sometimes took hours to arrive with the needed information to perform his mission on this leap. He did notice a white cast completely covering the left leg and hip with few signatures on it, as is custom./p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"emCast is consistent with a broken left femur. Based on how white the cast is and not many people's writing on it, I've probably only been here a day or so. I don't seem to have any other injuries, so whatever happened wasn't life threatening, for me at least. No one else is in the room so I know I'm in private quarters and based on the minimal lighting around me and my view outside, I'm guessing I leapt into the very early morning hours./em/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sam looked back outside and saw a large mass of people walking down the street. "Lass die Berliner Mauer fallen, Lass die Berliner Mauer fallen, Lass die Berliner Mauer fallen, Lass die Berliner Mauer fallen"/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Let fall the Berlin wall...Oh, Boy"/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"emUsually when I leap into the days before a significant event in history, I'm either too far away from it to witness it in person or my brain is too Swiss cheesed from the leaping process to notice for at least a little while. This time around, I figured out almost as soon as I got here that I've leapt somewhere close to the Berlin Wall in the days before it fell, and I doubt I'll be able to escape this hospital that I'm in, unless that's my mission./em/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"How's it going, Sam?" asked Al, already knowing that Sam is probably very scared /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"at what was happening/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"./span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"Other than leaping into Germany during one of the scariest political upheavals in the 20/spansupspan style="font-style: normal;"th/span/supspan style="font-style: normal;" century, I'm just great Al." replied Sam with a sense of dripping sarcasm./span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"Hey, it could be worse. Would you rather leap into Germany at any point between 1939 and 1945?" /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"asked Al, ever trying to be the voice of reason./span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Normally, I would agree with you on this point, but as ANY of those dates are beyond my lifetime, I'd be too busy wondering how we a) were at ground zero of an atomic detonation without my knowing it, b) got struck by lightning without my knowing or c) had a relative of mine leave the United States and enter Nazi Germany without my knowing to actually be scared half the time" said Sam, having a feeling that he's made this speech to Al more than once./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"OK, OK, take it easy. Your name is Erica Wiebe, /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"and you're in Charite University Hospital in East Berlin. The date is November 7/spansupspan style="font-style: normal;"th/span/supspan style="font-style: normal;", 1989...oh jeez, that's 2 days before the fall of the wall" whispered Al./span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"I remember. German reunification began a few weeks ago, and it was finalized in November 1991...but yes, the main wall was fallen on November 9/spansupspan style="font-style: normal;"th/span/supspan style="font-style: normal;", 19/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"89/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"." said Sam, who looked equally parts scared and proud that he got to relive this./span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"It was one of the only times you slowed down the development of Project Quantum Leap for any significant period /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"of time/spanspan style="font-style: normal;". I for one was happy /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"that it finally came down/spanspan style="font-style: normal;", the wall represented a Germany that hadn't existed for decades, and when the cold war thawed, it was /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"a /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"perfect /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"time to tear this relic down/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"." /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"said Al with a tiny smile on his face. Sam looked at a nearby clock on the beige wall opposite where his hospital bed lay. It read 6:05/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"a/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"m./span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"We don't even have /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"42/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" hours, much less 2 days." said Sam, who then gulped in fear. Al then tapped his bluetooth which was tied directly to Ziggy, the parallel hybrid computer. After about 15 or 20 seconds, he spoke again "We have even less time than that. Ziggy says that if we wait until the official fall of the wall, a message you're supposed to be delivering to someone on the other side of the wall will arrive late. That will start a chain reaction where that person will default a /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"payment on their mortgage and be evicted on the /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"fifteenth of December/spanspan style="font-style: normal;", and the family involved will either be put in foster care or /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"homeless/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" by Christmas. /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"Sam, what's so funny?" asked Al./span/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sam then pointed to the cast on his leg, which was under a bed sheet since almost as Sam saw Al. Sam then finally replied "Irony, I have to escape a hospital with a cast on my leg"/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Al merely shook his head/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"emProject Quantum Clone Leap, New Mexico/em/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"span style="font-style: normal;"Current Date: November /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"20/spansupspan style="font-style: normal;"th/span/supspan style="font-style: normal;", 2011/span/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Wo bin ich? Habe ich im Schlaf das Krankenhaus gewechselt?" (Where am I? Did I switch hospitals when I was asleep?)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh great, another leap subject that doesn't speak English" said Dr. Beeks, the project psychiatrist who was on her way to the waiting room to meet the new patient./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""You shouldn't be surprised, Dr. Beeks. 71.8% of the world's population doesn't speak English and roughly half of the rest of those people do not have English as a first language. I'm actually shocked as to how many of Dr. Beckett's leaps were confined to English speaking Americans. It's almost as if we were a TV show on NBC and the executives were filtering out the leaps with non-English speakers." replied Ziggy, making sure the patient didn't hear her./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"We should put a request /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"in/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" to Dyad to work on some translation algorithms to make things easier /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"for us. There seems to be clones from all over the world"/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Or I could just project what they're saying in English to you with what you have to say to be spelled out phonetically." countered Ziggy./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"True, but the patients seeing holographic projections could open up other cans of worms. Especially if they're children like this...Erica Wiebe. How did we get her name /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"and the date/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" so early?" asked Dr. Beeks./span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"She announced /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"both/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" within seconds of her arrival. /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"Almost as if she was prepared for this/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"" replied Ziggy as Beth found Dr. Beeks, less than 20 feet from the waiting room door./span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"You don't /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"happen to speak German as well as you spoke Spanish to the last patient, do you?" asked Dr. Beeks in a somewhat desperate tone. Beth shook her head, then asked Ziggy "Ziggy, please list everyone on the project who can speak German."/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""There are precisely 2 human beings in the Project Quantum Leap employee database that speak German: Dr. Sam Beckett...and Dr. Sammi Jo Fuller" stated Ziggy, somewhat surprised./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Well, considering our patient is in one of the 2 German speakers. I'll go find the other one" stated Dr. Beeks./p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"span style="font-style: normal;"I/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"t was about 10-15 minutes later, and Sammi Jo was in the waiting room with Erica./span/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Vielen Dank, dass Sie uns bereits Ihren Namen und das heutige Datum mitgeteilt haben. Was können Sie uns zu der Nachricht sagen, die Sie übermitteln müssen?" (Thank you for already telling us your name and today's date. What can you tell us about the message that you have to deliver?) asked Sammi Jo in a quiet, steady voice./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Ich würde lieber nicht sagen, es ist ein Geheimnis" (I would rather not say, it's a secret) she replied, in a whisper, almost ashamed of herself. Sammi Jo stumbled a bit, having never conducted the interview with the leapee before, before finally settling on "Der Grund, warum du hier bist, ist, dich aus der Gefahrenzone zu bringen. Außerdem können wir die Nachricht schneller an Ihren Cousin weiterleiten." (The reason you're here is to take you out of danger. Plus, we can get the message to your cousin faster.)/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Erica took a minute to process all of that, and with a sigh, she spoke again: "Nun, es ist nicht wirklich eine Nachricht. Es ist Geld, es meinen Cousins im 'anderen Deutschland' mit der Anweisung zu geben, es sofort ihrem Vermieter zu geben." (Well, it's not really a message. It's money to give to my cousins in the "other Germany" with instructions to give it to their landlord immediately.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"That certainly explains what Ziggy told Al to tell Sam in case the mission fails" mumbled Sammi Jo, knowing Erica couldn't understand. Then Erica continued /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"thinking out loud/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" "Warum all die herumschleichen? Es ist nur Geld" ("Why all the sneaking around? It's only money")/span/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"span style="font-style: normal;"S/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"am was growing frustrated quite quickly, there was an itch he couldn't scratch as it was being blocked by the very cast he saw when he first arrived./span/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""emThis itching is intolerable. The doctor in me is afraid that there's an infection underneath my cast. Did I leap into someone who's septic? It's the Bermuda triangle leap all over again"/em/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Al then re-entered the scene via the imaging chamber door. He was actually laughing out loud, which added to Sam's frustration. Al seemed to have noticed, as he switched to serious mode, "I'm sorry Sam, but Erica's cast is a ruse. The leg isn't broken. The mission she was on is technically under the cast. Ziggy then extrapolated that the doctor attending to Erica is actually in on it."/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"span style="font-style: normal;"The look on Sam's face switched from frustration to confusion. He then began staring at all sides of the cast skeptically, /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"until he finally saw that the cast was intentionally designed so that it was easy to rip off due to it being structurally weak along the rear section. Sam carefully removed the cast (at Al's non-verbal urging) to reveal that there was a bundle of Deutschemarks (several thousand by Sam's guess) right where his itching was. Sam then began laughing in relief, happy that his host wasn't about to lose a leg, or die /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"before he could leap out/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"./span/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"Originally, in 29 hours, Erica was to hand the money to someone on the other side of the wall via one of its' holes. We're just pushing her own actions /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"forward a bit." said Al, actually pleased that the mission was technically half-finished before Sam had even arrived./span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"Great Al. But if we start early, /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"I doubt someone will be there to meet us on the other side." said Sam, ever pragmatic. Al then tapped his bluetooth, then replied "Ziggy agrees with you, Sam. And her only suggestion is: 'Put the cast back on'"/span/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"uspan style="font-style: normal;"A/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"ct 2/span/u/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"Marion Bowles had become used to making at least one negative phone call to whichever Dyad office that Project Quantum Leap needed in order to get said office into shape. She was pleasantly surprised that she didn't have to do that this time. Before the German reunification, both the East and West German Dyad offices would regularly score among the top 10 Dyad offices in the world with every quarterly review. After the reunification, Germany instantly made it into the top 5, and would occasionally rival the American and Canadian offices for the top spot. Marion was /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"a bit disappointed that her cell phone battery was dead/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;", /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"but/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;" it gave her a moment to remember as much German as possible /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"as she got out a backup battery from her purse/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;". /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"She also realized that a lot of information about the clones could have easily slipped through the cracks as the East and West German offices merged in the first quarter of 1991. Then, a different thought came to her head "Screw this, Rachel Duncan is more fluent in German than I am. I'll just get her to do it."/span/span/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"After the new battery was installed, she immediately dialled a number with the Canadian area code "647" that started it. A North American dial tone was heard a moment later./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Go Marion" said Rachel, quite coldly./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""span style="font-style: normal;"I need you to contact the office in Berlin, your German is better than mine." /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"said Marion assertively./span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Sure, what am I asking for?" asked Rachel after a slight sigh./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""A list of clones who were within 50 kilometres in any direction of the Berlin wall in the 3 and a half days before and after the fall of the wall. It's for the leap project in New Mexico."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Obviously." said Rachel, almost in a patronizing tone, then added "As I recall, weren't all of the clones in Germany during that time sent on vacations to countries that had no clones? That way, none of the clones got killed during the protests by accident. I remember accounting being very well prepared for this as it was nearly $100,000 U.S. to cover everyone. Then again, I was only 5 years old at the time, how would I know about this sort of thing?" she asked, deliberately to piss Marion off./p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"Marion didn't take the bait, "I have reason to believe that at least 1 clone stayed /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"behind/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;", likely 2" was all that came out of her mouth. She actually remained patient, as Rachel had silently put her on hold while she called Berlin. Marion wasn't even annoyed at the "on hold" music that she was hearing (a generic adaptation of a classical piece whose name /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"and composer/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;" eluded Marion Bowles). About 5 minutes, Rachel came back on "Indeed, Marion. There were in fact 2 clones /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"who stayed behind: Erica Wiebe and Katja Obinger. Erica stayed as she was injured and her monitor didn't want to aggravate her physical state. She had a broken leg, according to her doctor at the time. And both of them were close to the wall. Erica was safe, Katja was there due to a disobedient monitor"/span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""OK, that makes sense. Why did Katja stay behind at all? She could've just stayed home and watched it on the news" asked Marion./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""She was the clone we picked to be poor. If she magically had parents willing to take her to, say, Paris, she would've wondered where the cash came from. Oddly, she has one of the higher paying jobs out of all the clones now, so I guess that experiment worked" said Rachel pragmatically./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yes, in the fashion industry. Follow up on this" said Marion./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'm on it" replied Rachel as they both hung up. Rachel had to admit, even she was a bit intrigued at the thought of 2 of the clones being so close to such a pivotal moment in human history./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Rachel needed over half an hour to clear her schedule enough to conduct this new investigation, but she did. Investigating Erica was something that she believed to be non-essential: She was injured at the time and receiving proper care. Rachel even silently mused that the hospital was probably the safest place she could be, given the time and circumstances. So, Rachel's first priority was going by Marion's orders and following up on Katja Obinger instead. Rachel was able to get the dossier on Katja Obinger relatively easy, sent straight to her office laptop back in Toronto. From there, it was the process of finding out who was her monitor back then in an effort to figure out why Katja's file had a gap where the days before and after the Berlin wall began falling are not properly accounted for. It was actually Katja's adopted uncle who served as the monitor of the time, who was subletting a room in the Obinger household in order for him to afford college (and for their financial situation to not be even worse than it was back then). She was actually even a little pleased that this monitor was not "dealt with" in the traditional manner when she switched monitors to her dorm roommate (and by traditional, one means killed). The follow-up reports stated that the monitor (A man named Franz Obinger) was actually an inpatient at the same hospital that Sam was at, just in 2011, not 1989. The first thing that caught Rachel's eye was a recent ultrasound:/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh, that's a pity. Pancreatic Cancer" she said coldly as she grabbed her cell phone and began dialling./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Hallo?" came an older woman's voice on the other end of the line./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Guten Abend. Wird Franz Obinger heute chemotherapeutisch behandelt? Ich bin in seinem Job mit Personalabteilung beschäftigt und muss nur seine Leistungsansprüche überprüfen." (Good evening. Is Franz Obinger receiving chemotherapy today? I'm with human resources at his job and just need to verify his benefits claims.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh. Ja, er ist gerade fertig. Ich werde dich in sein Zimmer durchstellen." (Oh. Yes, he's just finishing up. I'll put you through to his room)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Rachel wasn't even given time to say thank you before she was put on hold. She checked her watch, and realized why she wasn't even questioned: It was after midnight in Germany, the girl on the phone probably didn't give a shit who called the patients at that hour, as long as they weren't terrorists./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Das ist besser wichtig. Ich musste 10 Stunden warten, um eine Chemotherapie für einen Krebs zu bekommen, der mich sowieso umbringen wird." (This better be important. I had to wait 10 hours just to get chemotherapy for a cancer that is just going to kill me anyways.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Hallo Franz, das ist Rachel Duncan von Dyad." (Hello Franz, this is Rachel Duncan from Dyad.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"A glass could be heard breaking on Franz's end of the conversation./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Wann werde ich jemals mit dir fertig sein?" (When will I ever be done with you assholes?)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Nicht bis zum Tod, und selbst dann ist es irgendwie zweifelhaft." (Not until death, and even then it's kind of iffy.) replied Rachel, having likely given that answer or something to well over 100 monitors in just the last 5 years alone./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Was willst du?" (What do you want?)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Klarstellung, warum Sie der Berliner Mauer so nahe waren, als sie abgerissen wurde." (Clarification as to why you were so close to the Berlin Wall so close to it being demolished.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Es war ein Ereignis in der deutschen Geschichte, ich habe sie mitgenommen." (It was an event in German history, I took her to it.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Und was ist der wahre Grund? Ich weiß, dass es derzeit umstritten ist, wenn Sie nach Ihnen suchen, aber ich habe eine Akte über jeden, mit dem Sie damals zusammenlebten." (And what's the real reason? I know going after you is moot at this point, but I have a file on every one you were living with back then.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Franz then let out a dejected sigh, knowing he had been caught with a lie he had been keeping for well over 20 years: "Fein. Wir wollten rausgeschmissen werden, also bat ich einen der anderen Monitore, uns etwas Geld zur Deckung zu leihen, weil ich mich zu schämte, um direkt zu euch zu gehen. Wir konnten uns nicht zur richtigen Zeit treffen und wurden vertrieben. Dank euch haben wir irgendwann einen anderen Platz bekommen, aber das war mein größter Fehler als Monitor." (Fine. We were about to be kicked out, so I asked one of the other monitors to loan us some money to cover us because I was too ashamed to go to you guys directly. We couldn't meet up at the right time, so we were evicted. We eventually got another place thanks to you guys, but that was my biggest mistake as a monitor.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Das war auch ein Versehen von Dyads Seite. Wir hatten nicht die Absicht, dich oder Katja oder jemanden in ihrer Nähe jemals so arm zu machen, dass er obdachlos wird. Dafür haben Sie unsere Entschuldigung." (That was an oversight on Dyad's part as well. We had no intention of ever having you or Katja or anyone close to her get so poor as to be homeless. For that, you have our apologies.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Das macht uns eben. Ob Dyad bereit ist, das zu akzeptieren oder nicht. Nimm nie wieder Kontakt mit mir auf." (Well, this makes us even. Whether Dyad is willing to accept that or not. Don't ever contact me again.) stated Franz, almost angrily, as he hung up. Rachel didn't waste her time calling back, or even making an arrangement for him to have an "accident" as she knew he'd be dead shortly anyway./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Two thoughts then came to Rachel's mind: "Erica faked the broken leg, clever girl. And...OK, the internet barely even existed back in 1989, but there must have been media coverage on both sides of the wall. Maybe a camera caught Katja and/or Franz hanging around the wall at some point"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Rachel then left her desk and walked over to a conference table on the other side of her office. She then announced "Holographic projection, Berlin Wall". The Table then projected her request in a neon blue lighting. "Do we have a media archive of the Berlin Wall for November 7supth/sup, 1989?" asked Rachel./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yes. 357 professional media crews, 125 civilians with video cameras or cameras who submitted their footage to the media after the fact" came a unisex robotic voice./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Correlate all of the footage we have on file, search for any and all Project Leda Clones and Dyad employees who were within 1 kilometre of the wall that day using facial recognition software." demanded Rachel./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Processing, just a moment" said the table. It then began to position red dots on the East German side of the wall, and green dots on the West German side. Rachel assumed that those were where the humans along each side of the wall were at any given moment, as most were in motion while only a handful on each side stayed right where they are (Rachel silently guessed that those were police officers or military). After nearly 5 minutes of all of the data processing, the holographic table actually stopped, with 2 lights blinking on the West German side./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Do the blinking lights mean that those are 2 of ours?" asked Rachel./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Affirmative, Miss Duncan. 1 Clone and 1 Monitor were spotted by a Canadian news camera that day."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Katja and Franz Obinger?" asked Rachel./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I project a 94% probability that those 2 are the correct guesses." replied the table./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Why drive 5 hours just to borrow money?" asked Rachel, utterly confused./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sam and Al had their plan mapped out by the time the next doctor arrived. He took Sam's temperature (A perfect 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit), blood pressure (120 over 80) and a few other checks that had nothing to do with a broken leg. Sam tried his best to look at Al as if to say "What the hell is this doctor doing?" Al, to his credit, touched his bluetooth, also sensing that something was amiss here. Al's eyes widened as he announced "Sam, Ziggy says that there's an 87.1% chance that the doctor is in on the plan and is just going through the motions to pretend that you're actually right"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sam, having nothing to lose, blurted out "Ich muss früher hier raus" (I need to get out of here sooner)./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Erst wenn ich weiß, dass der Knochen zu heilen beginnt." (Not until I know the bone has begun to heal.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Darauf bezog ich mich nicht. Das Abhol-Team war früher als geplant hier, daher muss ich viel früher los, um sie zu treffen." (That's not what I was referring to. The pickup team got here ahead of schedule so I have to go a lot sooner in order to meet them.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"The doctor looked shocked at this revelation, with Al responding by saying "If this ain't our guy, I don't need Ziggy to tell us how screwed we are". The doctor silently excused himself, then left the room entirely. Al had a better view, and noticed a large object pressed to one side of his face "He's on a satellite phone. I haven't seen one of those in years". The doctor then returned and announced "Ich bin beeindruckt, Sie scheinen recht zu haben." (I'm impressed, you appear to be right)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""You've got 32 minutes Sam, the faster you explain our plan to this guy, the better off we all are"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Sonst ändert sich nichts an dem Plan, wir beginnen die Party nur früher." (Nothing else of the plan changes, we're just starting the party earlier.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Ich verstehe" (I understand)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Wenn Sie mich zum Ausgang rollen, der der Wand am nächsten ist, steige ich aus dem Stuhl, wenn niemand da ist, der uns sieht. Ich beeile mich zur Wand, um unseren Kontakt zu treffen, das Geld abzugeben, die Wand zu verlassen und hierher zurückzukehren. Sie können Ihre regulären Aufgaben wahrscheinlich mindestens 15 Minuten lang erledigen, ohne draußen auf mich warten zu müssen. Haben Sie noch Fragen?" (You wheel me out to the exit that is nearest to the wall, I get out of the chair when there's no one to see us. I hurry to the wall to meet our contact, hand off the money, leave the wall and come back here. You can probably tend to your regular duties for at least 15 minutes without having to stand outside waiting for me, any questions?) asked Sam while Al stood around, relieved that Sam remembered enough German to say all of that./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Nein. Du bist ein ziemlich kluges kleines Mädchen, sollen wir anfangen?" (No. You're quite a smart little girl, shall we begin?)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sam and Al nodded in unison./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"uAct 3/u/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Erste Station ist der Aufzug. Dies funktioniert wahrscheinlich besser, wenn Sie so tun, als ob Sie schlafen würden" (First stop is the elevator. This will likely work better if you're pretending to be asleep). Said the doctor to Sam, Sam immediately obliged, knowing it would draw less attention to him./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Try to drool a bit, Sam. People who have been sedated by doctors tend to drool. Wait, you would know that already, you're a doctor" said Al, feeling like an idiot for not remembering all of his best friend's doctorates. Sam didn't hold it against Al, and began drooling on command. The doctor wheeled him out of the hospital room, making a right turn down the hallway (all painted in beige and orange)./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""No one's in this hallway, Sam. So far so good" muttered Al, pretending to walk with them as though he were an actual person and not a time displaced holographic projection wherein the laws of physics barely (at best) applied to. The German doctor breathed a sigh of relief as they entered the enlarged, stainless steel elevator./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Niemand im Aufzug, das ist ein gutes Zeichen." (No one in the elevator, that's a good sign.) mumbled the doctor./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Don't jinx it, doc. We're nowhere near out of the woods yet" replied Al. Sam mouthed the words "You speak German?" without speaking them. Al shrugged his shoulders and replied "No, but Ziggy is probably the best translator in the world"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"The elevator door opened once more, as they reached the ground floor of the hospital. There were significantly more people here, but that was to be expected by all parties. One saving grace about the crowd was that almost no one paid any attention to Sam, in fact a few people weren't even patients, just some people who needed a safe place to watch what would become the German reunification. One receptionist seemed to stare at them, which lead Al to mutter to Sam "Uh Oh". The doctor, to his credit, was prepared "Mein Patient braucht nur ein bisschen frische Luft" (My patient just needs a little bit of fresh air). The nurse (a brunette in her mid 20's, likely still in nursing school) nodded, but said "Seien Sie vorsichtig, es gibt eine verstärkte Polizeipräsenz in der Gegend. Die Mauer wird bereits von Demonstranten durchbrochen." (Be careful, there's a heightened police presence in the area. The wall is already being broken by protesters.) The doctor nodded, Sam was trying not to laugh, Al was getting anxious. The doctor placated the nurse by saying "Ich verspreche, dies die ganze Zeit zu sehen" (I promise to watch this one the entire time). The nurse nodded and turned her focus to other people as the doctor, Sam and Al made it to the exit. To the surprise of everyone, there was no one outside waiting for taxis or even smoking. "Die Küste ist klar" (The coast is clear) announced the doctor. Sam immediately dropped the act./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Gehen Sie von Westen nach Nordwesten zur Mauer und beeilen Sie sich." (Head west by northwest towards the wall, and hurry.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sam nodded. He and Al immediately parted from the doctor's company./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What the hell, I'll look into killing him anyways. Project a holographic display of the best known medical condition of Franz Obinger. Highlight all places wherein malignant tumours are present." stated Rachel. The Table only took 3 seconds to show his entire body, highlighting a lemon sized mass inside his pancreas and golf ball sized masses in his liver and in the right side of his brain. "Based on our knowledge, what's his prognosis?" asked Rachel./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""He should already be dead by now, but we project an 85% probability that this cancer will enter his right lung inside of a week and kill him outright shortly thereafter. 99% probability of death within 15 days."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Rachel stepped back and mumbled to herself "They probably won't even do an autopsy with that much cancer in him already. I'm actually surprised that they're still doing chemo". She then walked back over to her desk and began punching in a few commands into Dyad's files. "Now, who does Dyad have inside the hospital? Ah, OK, a nurse named Joanna McCullough. Let's see if she's on duty now...she is, but only for another 20 minutes. I better hurry"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Rachel then grabbed her cellphone that was sitting on her desk. It took her almost a minute to dial the whole number. It was quickly answered:/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Charite-Universitätsklinikum, Joanna McCullough., wie kann ich Ihren Anruf leiten?" (Charite university hospital, Joanna McCullough speaking, how may I direct your call?)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Eigentlich Miss McCullough., ich würde gerne persönlich mit Ihnen sprechen, das ist Rachel Duncan vom Dyad Institute." (Actually Miss McCullough., I would like to talk to you personally, this is Rachel Duncan from the Dyad Institute.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Hallo Miss Duncan, vielen Dank für Ihr Universitätsstipendium, ohne das ich mir meine Ausbildung nicht leisten könnte. Ich hatte nichts dagegen, Katja Obinger ein paar Monate lang zu überwachen, um es zu verdienen. Wie kann ich Ihnen helfen?" (Hello Miss Duncan, thank you for your university grant as I couldn't afford my education without it. I didn't even mind monitoring Katja Obinger for a couple of months to earn it, how may I help you?)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Wir haben Ihrem Krankenhaus kürzlich ein neues Krebsmedikament mit dem Namen FOLFIRINOX verabreicht. Wir möchten, dass Sie einem Patienten in Ihrem Krankenhaus mit dem Namen Franz Obinger (Katjas Onkel) das Medikament injizieren, da ihm die Zulassung erteilt wurde, damit fortzufahren. Melden Sie die Ergebnisse in 72 Stunden zurück und wir kaufen Ihnen eine Eigentumswohnung. Deal?" (We recently gave your hospital a new cancer drug called FOLFIRINOX and we'd like you to inject a patient in your hospital named Franz Obinger (Katja's Uncle) with it as he's been approved to go on it. Report back the results in 72 hours and we'll buy you a condo. Deal?)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Deal, und nochmals vielen Dank. Auf Wiedersehen!" (Deal, and thank you again. Goodbye!)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Rachel giggled as soon as she hung up "With his condition, he won't even live 8 hours, much less 72. Then again, I don't want Joanna to sue us either" she mumbled as she stared at a condo located 3 blocks away from the hospital. She immediately bought it in Joanna's name./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Back at the project, Donna Elysee-Beckett had set up a laptop to carry on a 3-way video chat on Skype. Marion Bowles was positioned on the left side of the screen, Rachel Duncan was on the right./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Take care of it, Rachel?" asked Marion./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yes. A film crew did spot Katja and her uncle on the opposite side of the wall, but not at the time Erica was there." began Rachel./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""We believe we've rectified that but we'll stay on it until Sam leaps out of Erica" interjected Donna./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Good. Unless your Ziggy changes her mind, we'll assume that the mission is still to transfer the money to Katja or Franz." said Rachel coldly./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""A pity that Dr. Beckett can't be in 2 clones at once. Actually, as that would likely harm Dr. Beckett neurologically, maybe that's a good thing." said Marion pragmatically./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""You are correct, Miss Bowles. Unless it's 2 separate leaps that land at the same time and general area or Sam leaps into identical twins, given the DNA" stated Ziggy, who was monitoring all 3 ends of the chat (and had quietly projected a 92% probability that Rachel Duncan had just ordered someone killed based on her mannerisms)./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Would you be able to send the approximate location of Katja and Franz to Ziggy so that Sam has a better chance of making the rendez-vous?" asked Donna, making sure to focus her attention on Rachel./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I can do that. Might I suggest a signal for Sam to get Katja's attention?" offered Rachel./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""OK, but that has to be done VERY carefully, Miss Duncan. Given how many police officers and military are on both sides of that wall that day, one wrong signal could get both girls or Franz captured or even killed" countered Ziggy./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I can't believe that I'm saying this, but I agree with Ziggy on this one. No sense in increasing the risk to anyone even further." added Marion./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Tuvan throat singing would be best, as it would be a lower register of sound than all of the other noise that's going on on either side of the wall" offered Ziggy./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'll relay that to Al to tell Sam. Is there anything else?" asked Donna. Rachel and Donna shook their heads, "Meeting adjourned" said Donna abruptly as she terminated the 3-way chat./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Ziggy, tell me I'm not the only one who gets the creeps talking to Rachel" said Donna as she left the conference room./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Indeed you're not alone, Dr. Beckett. Aside from the textbook narcissism that she exhibits, she fits the profile for obsessive compulsive disorder. If she ever became curious about 1 particular clone, that clone would have to destroy her or be killed. A perfect 100% probability there."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"emI actually appreciated the walk towards the Berlin Wall, when I wasn't dodging crowds of protesters, that is. It gave Al and Ziggy more than enough time to map out the Berlin Wall via a holographic projection, it was even coloured in a darkish blue for me./em/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Al, have holes already begun forming in the wall?" Sam asked, hoping no one could hear him other than the holographic projection of his best friend./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yes sir, over 200 of them are already there, according to Ziggy. Ziggy, show Sam the holes of the wall in neon green along the wall" said Al. Ziggy complied immediately./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Looks like I have a lot of options to hand Katja the money, which means our odds just went up" shouted Sam, barely able to hear himself./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yeah, not even Ziggy can pinpoint which one will be best for you to make the handoff." shouted Al, knowing that things were only going to get worse from here. He then focused his attention on Ziggy for a moment, then said "Sam, you're about as close to them as you're ever going to get. Electrical interference from all of the media equipment is messing Ziggy up a little bit though, as she has Katja and Franz in 3 different locations right now."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Ziggy, centre Al on the other side of the wall in the mid-point of all 3 possible locations" ordered Sam, Ziggy complied./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"To Al's shock, he technically moved only about 50 feet or so from where he originally was. He then began looking around for someone who kind of looked like Erica, finding her hiding behind her Uncle Franz about 10 paces away to the south. Al smiled slightly at a thought in his head./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Ziggy, what are the odds of Katja being able to see me?" asked Al./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""span style="font-style: normal;"79.4%, as she may still exist in the alpha state" replied Ziggy through Al's bluetooth. Al slowly walked over, pretending that the ground was real to him in order to not scare Katja. She emerged from her uncle's shadow, wearing a red and gold school uniform. Ziggy then flashed a bunch of words that Al understood to be German phonetics:/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Hallo, ich heiße Al. Sag nichts, die Erwachsenen können mich nicht so sehen wie du. (Hi, my name is Al. Don't say anything, the grown ups can't see me like you can.)" He then looked to the wall and shouted "SAM, OVER HERE!"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Ask her if she wants to get the message for her uncle. I'll project it phonetically again so that it sounds German" said Ziggy./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Möchten Sie die Nachricht für Ihren Onkel erhalten? (Do you want to get the message for your uncle?)" asked Al, albeit a bit slowly. Katja nodded./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""OK, get your uncle to get closer to the wall" said Al./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Onkel Franz, ich glaube Cousine Erica wartet da drüben auf uns" (Uncle Franz, I think cousin Erica is over there waiting for us). Franz merely laughed at her, underestimating her. Ziggy improvised quickly for Al, projecting new phonetics. "Bleib hier, vielleicht kann ich Erica stattdessen zu dir bringen." (Stay here, maybe I can get Erica to you instead.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Katja nodded. She didn't even respond when she saw Al walk through the wall./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"uAct 4/u/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Ziggy calling a meeting without prompting from one of the humans was a rarity. To the credit of everyone on the project, everyone rushed into the conference room in under 90 seconds (except for Sammi Jo Fuller, who Ziggy excused from the meeting to stay behind in the project waiting room to keep Erica entertained, and Al Calavicci who was still monitoring Sam). Tom Beckett was the last to enter the conference room, even Marion arrived faster via a Skype link./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""No Rachel this time?" asked Donna Elysee-Beckett./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Rachel Duncan is not directly involved with Project Quantum Leap, thus she is not needed at this time" replied Ziggy, to the relief of everyone in this meeting not named Marion Bowles (and Ziggy silently projected a 61% probability that even Marion hated Rachel)./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Very well, Ziggy. What do you want?" asked Tom Beckett in a deliberate attempt to keep Ziggy from going off on a random tangent that had nothing to do with anything./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"Well, between this leap where we need 2 clones to interact with each other and the 2 occasions so far where we had to deal with Helena: I formally request permission to develop my own software to determine when clones are in close proximity to Sam and to hypothesize scenarios in order to determine the best course of action" said Ziggy (probably more humble than she had ever been in her life)./span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Ziggy can do this?" asked Marion to the rest of the project./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yes. My brother designed her that way so that she could not only improve herself, but improve the entire project even without him having to be here. Truth be told, I'm actually disappointed in Ziggy for not making more requests of this nature." replied Tom./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'll be sure to rectify that" said Ziggy. Beth Calavicci groaned momentarily, then said "Sorry" out of shock that she responded in that manner./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I approve" says Dr. Beeks. Everyone else nodded, which Ziggy correctly interpreted as her acquiring the permission that she needed./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"Back in the waiting room, Sammi Jo was guilt-ridden. Does she tell Erica that her "cousin" Katja is a copy of her? (Assuming she leaps back and would just forget everything anyway) /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"Or does she keep quiet on the matter? (Which is effectively lying to a child). In the end, she decided a third option: Confide the internal conflict to Ziggy and defer to the parallel hybrid computer's judgement./span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Erica, wirst du für ein paar Minuten alleine in Ordnung sein? Ich muss auf die Toilette." (Erica, will you be OK by yourself for a few minutes? I have to use the bathroom.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Erica nodded and smiled, saying nothing. Sammi Jo then left the waiting room immediately and kept quiet until she knew that she was far enough away so that Erica had absolutely no chance of hearing her./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Ziggy?" she asked in a nearby hallway./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yes?" she asked somewhat whimsically./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"Should I tell Erica about Katja?" asked Sammi Jo./span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Absolutely not. Keep quiet" replied Ziggy sternly./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""SAM! I found Katja." shouted Al as he walked back through the wall, not wasting time asking Ziggy to re-position hi to Sam's location./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""That's great Al, that was quick." said Sam./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yeah, the best hole for you to use is literally right in front of you" said Al as he pointed, not wanting to waste Ziggy's time in projecting a holographic light or arrow. Sam nodded, then asked "How did you find her so quickly?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'm used to what all of the Leda clones look like now. Also, I'm not so sure I found her first. She may very well have found me first, truth be told" replied Al./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""She can see you? Well that's not too much of a surprise as she's about that age where she's innocent enough to only see the truth." said Sam, ever the pragmatist as he recalled dozens of leaps where a child close to the situation could see them. Most of them he remembered fondly as they either stayed out of the way, or helped out a little./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Ziggy is suggesting that instead of a low voiced signal like Tuvan throat singing like she originally wanted, that I use myself as the signal, taking advantage of Katja's ability."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Agreed, I just hope we never run into a situation where that crazy blonde Ukrainian girl can see you again." said Sam./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""No argument from me on that one" replied Al as he walked back through the wall. He immediately began flailing his arms around in the air (hoping that no OTHER kid, animal, crazy person or someone about to die saw him). Katja waved back and smiled, and even tried to get her uncle to move closer to the wall./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Jesus Sam. Katja can see me quite clearly, but she can't get her uncle to move any closer." said Al, sounding very frustrated./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Just tell her to tell her uncle that she knows where the money is. Right, you don't speak German. Get Ziggy to project it phonetically"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Al actually smirked, knowing that for once, he had the drop on Sam "Katja is actually quite good at English" he replied, then merely pointed at Katja's uncle./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Onkel Franz, das Geld ist gleich da drüben." (Uncle Franz, the money is right over there.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Uncle Franz was stunned yet again, but began to trust his "niece". They began walking towards the wall and were less than 6 feet away before a police officer stopped them. He was dressed in an all black police uniform and armed with an M16 with a grenade launcher on the bottom./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Warte mal. Sie sind zu nah an der Wand, um nicht zu riskieren, getötet zu werden, besonders wenn Sie ein kleines Kind dabei haben. Kommen Sie einfach langsam zurück, damit ich Sie nicht vor einem Kind erschießen muss." (Hold it right there. You're too close to the wall to not risk getting killed, especially with a small child with you. Just back up nice and slowly so I don't have to shoot you in front of a kid.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Al, punch the situation into Ziggy...right...now" said Sam, looking terrified./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Already on it" replied Al./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"While Al was waiting for Ziggy to come up with a solution wherein no one (especially a child) gets shot, Sam struggled to get the fake cast off of his leg, figuring that the doctors back at the hospital's questions later would be worth saving lives now. He eventually got free, and bent over slightly to look through a hole, then an idea came to his head: "Al, tell Katja to start crying". Ziggy overheard Sam's plea and projected the words "Better than anything I've got, go with it" in front of Al's face. Al then walked through the wall and shouted "Katja, start crying! The louder, the better". Katja gave a very slight nod and followed Al's wish. Everyone within 50 feet of her (including the protestors) stopped everything that they were doing and began staring at Katja. Even the angry cop relented and asked "Was ist falsch?" (What's wrong?) as Uncle Franz adjusted his blue and black flannel shirt to a more presentable state./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Ich ging schon zur Wand, als mein Onkel nicht hinschaute und ich einen meiner Ohrringe verlor. Meine Großmutter hat sie mir geliehen und sie stammen aus der Zeit vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Bitte lassen Sie mich los, um es zu finden?" (I already went to the wall when my Uncle wasn't looking and I lost one of my earrings. My grandmother let me borrow them and they're from before the second world war. Please let me go find it?) she said in between sobs (Not even Al noticed her remove one of her earrings until after the fact)./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""OK, mach es schnell" (OK, make it quick) replied the cop. Katja immediately gave the police officer a little smile and a curtsy, then ran towards the wall. Al was relieved that the hole wasn't so big that Katja could see someone she would immediately think is her. But the hole was big enough for Sam's (as Erica's) right hand to poke through, holding an envelope./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"And upon Katja receiving the envelope, a blue light enveloped Sam, and he leaped...into Katja Obinger./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"With the exception of a simo-leap where Al and Sam switched places many years ago, Al never felt disoriented when Sam leapt. Sam usually was stuck in the fabric of time for at least a few hours (if not days) which gave Al enough time to leave the imaging chamber and be debriefed by either the government or (now) by Dyad. All Al witnessed was Sam leap from one side of a crumpling Berlin Wall to the other. Al was actually more disoriented than Sam was, which lead Sam to ask "Al, were we hit by lightning again? Or does one of the Germany's have a nuclear missile launch that the rest of the world covered up?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Neither Sam, you just leapt from Erica to Katja. Hurry back to your uncle and tell that security guard that you found the earring. Then take the earring out of your pocket and put it on your ear"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sam nodded then ran back to the man his instinct told him was Katja's uncle and monitor. He then turned his attention to the German police officer and said "Ich habe meinen Ohrring gefunden, danke, dass ich ihn suchen durfte." (I found my earring, thank you for letting me go look for it.)/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"The cops then nodded, smiled, then excused themselves to return their attentions to other potential troublemakers. "Al, what happens to Erica?" asked Sam. Al pushed a few buttons into the bluetooth that represented Ziggy, but after a moment, there's a look of sadness came across Al's face./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Al, what's wrong?" asked Sam./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Sam, Erica Wiebe is going to be diagnosed with Leukemia on Christmas Eve, and die on April 19supth/sup, 1990. This happened in the original timeline and Ziggy says you can't stop it."/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sam had a momentary urge to run back to the wall, but stopped himself, knowing that is was a futile effort even if he reached Erica (who was probably halfway back to the hospital by now already)./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What is my mission?" asked Sam./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Just get home by sunrise. Something has changed the timeline where you need to get home sooner or else Katja will be taken away from her family and placed with a monitor who will later be convicted of possession of child pornography of Katja. Sam, your potential future monitor is a pedophile" said Al, utterly devastated./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh boy"/p 


End file.
